Computer Researcher Named Distinguished Fellow of Information Security Group

Ron Ross, senior computer scientist and information security researcher at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), has been named a Distinguished Fellow of the Information Systems Security Association (ISSA), the association's highest tribute, for his leadership in the development of influential information security documents.

Ross manages the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) Implementation Project that has driven federal, state and local governments and many commercial organizations to focus on information security from a risk-based perspective. He was the principal architect of the NIST Risk Management Framework that integrated the suite of FISMA security standards and guidelines into a comprehensive enterprise-wide information security program. Earlier this year, Ross and his group published a revised version of NIST Special Publication 800-53, that represents a major step toward building a unified information security framework for the entire federal government.

While assigned to the National Security Agency, he received the Scientific Achievement Award for his work on an inter-agency national security project and was awarded the Defense Superior Service Medal upon his departure from the agency. He is a two-time recipient of Federal Computer Week's Federal 100 award.

ISSA is an international association of information security practitioners that work to protect privacy, data and systems for businesses, government, education, health care and law enforcement.

ISSA's Web site is www.issa.org. For more information about FISMA, see http://csrc.nist.gov/groups/SMA/fisma/index.html.